Fox Still Floating Swiftee Lies

The swift boat controversy shows no sign of dying down, not if Fox News can help it. The bogus charges and details behind them are well known by Fox viewers by now, but that hasn't stopped Fox from wasting air time on it yet again today (August 24).

Other Newshounds have suggested devoting less attention to the details of this Republican attack on Kerry and focusing on the amount of time Fox is spending on the issue. Fox and Friends spent 11 minutes and 12 seconds on the controversy in three long (by Fox standards) segments -- the first a rehash of Bob Dole's vicious remarks, the second a long interview with swiftee attackers spokesman Van Odell, and the third a report from Steve Centanni in Crawford, Texas, concerning Bush's statement about doing away with all 527's.

During that time, Fox played tape of Bush's statement condemning all 527's (not just the sneaky swiftees) twice, read a statement from swiftee organizer Hoffman, and then interviewed Odell who repeated many of the same things Hoffman said.

Fox also got in its digs against moveon.org, with E.D. Hill claiming the grassroots organization had run an ad comparing Bush to Hitler. Moveon.org never ran the ad. It was an entry in a do-it-yourself ad contest and could have been submitted by anyone (even a Republican).

In Fox News Live, Jon Scott also devoted a large amount of time to the non-issue. In three segments and one promotion, Scott spent 10 minutes and 34 seconds on the swiftees. One segment was a "special report" from Kelly Wright in Washington which was nothing but a rehash, except for the playing of a tape of John Edwards calling on Bush to "take down these ads." In all three reports, Fox played tape of Bush statements three times and of Edwards twice.

On top of it all, Scott had the nerve to ask, "Are we going to talk today about issues, or anytime soon?" Was he asking Roger Ailes that question?